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Just in time for next month's National Business Aviation Association annual meeting and convention, Gulfstream announced earlier in October some new city-pair speed records for its G550 bizjet. The new flights bring to 18 the total number of records Gulfstream claims. For one of them, a privately owned G550 established a new record between São Paulo, Brazil, and Moscow, Russia. For the other one, between Shanghai in the People’s Republic of China and Dallas, Texas, a company-owned jet was used. Official recognition of the city-pair speed records by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) is pending. There are some 60 examples making up the in-service G550 fleet; collectively they've flown more than 28,000 flight hours and completed some 11,000 takeoffs and landings. For the São Paulo-Moscow flight, the G550 took off at 6:52 p.m. local time on Oct. 2, 2005. It flew 6,511 nm at an average cruise speed of Mach 0.80 and landed 14 hours, 12 minutes later at 4:04 p.m. local time at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow. The G550 had fuel reserves for another 1½ hours of flight. Chief Pilot Francisco Lyra served as pilot-in-command and Captain Ivo Martins served as second-in-command. Also onboard were Co-pilot Renato Mattos, who served as first officer, and one passenger. For the Shanghai-Dallas flight on Sept. 29, the jet flew 6,671 nm in 13 hours and 2 minutes. The G550 took off from Shanghai Pudong Airport at 11:36 a.m. local time on Sept. 29 and touched down at Dallas Love Field at 11:39 a.m. local time, the same day. Its average cruise speed also was Mach 0.8. Gulfstream Captain John McGrath served as pilot-in-command, while Gulfstream Senior International Captains Paulo Jancitsky and Skip Wilkerson assisted. Also onboard were Flight Attendant Kim Buckelew and four passengers.

Question of the Week

Picture of the Week

As aviation photos go, this was the best this week but there are some great beauty shots when you click through. In the meantime, congratulations to Daniel Gillette for this very nice photo he calls Sunset Pitch-Out. The photo is copyrighted by Gillette.